The Center for the Acceleration of African-American Business (CAAAB) has launched a new program, “Catch the CAAAB to Accelerate Your Business’ Success.” It’s a capacity-building model designed to nuture, assess and strengthen critical business functions of select group African-American businesses in the infancy stage.
The project is a joint venture with CAAAB’s partner, IMPACT Training and Consulting LLC, who will manage a team of consultants including, accounting, financial management, human resource management, legal, marketing and sales and social network marketing.
CAAAB announced the initiative recently during a breakfast meeting in the downtown St. Louis Bank of America Building, a CAAAB sponsor. The Incarnate Word Foundation, also a CAAAB sponsor, sponsored the breakfast.
Under the program, 20 businesses will be groomed, monitored and mentored for one year; development measurement will be analyzed against a battery of benchmarks to determine each business’ readiness to stand on its own merits.
The small business consulting program will assist visionary entrepreneurs to overcome growth-killing obstacles that get in the way of becoming profitable enterprises, said Lora Gulley, President/CEO of IMACT.
Gulley is an adjunct faculty member at Maryville University and Washington University’s Brown School of Social Work. For 15 years she has worked to improve performance of employees and service-driven organizations, provided an eye-opening accessment of small business start-up success.
Seventy-five percent of small businesses fail due to lack of resources within the first 18 months, her statistics showed. The failure rate of a small business is 25 percent greater “due to lack of resources” rather “than financial capital.”
“A lot of businesses just don’t know how to get started,” said Gulley, who is also a former basketball academic-all American and Hall of Fame inductee.
IMPACT is an independent consulting firm that provides custom training and organizational development solutions for optimal business performance, quality and results.
Gulley husband, business consultant Corey Gulley is a former Xerox executive and owner of The Car Doctor, an automotive service and repair shop in North St. Louis County. He said the power of the Catch the CAAAB model is fueled through its mission statement: To provide access to information and resources that will increase the success rate of small, minority businesses…And to strengthen their communities and positively impact the economy.
“How do we support the economic capacity that businesses can provide to our community?” he asked. “By utilizing our resources to encourage, empower and expand our entrepreneurs’ footprints.”
Corey Gulley shared how family and community support has played a major factor in the growth and sustainability of his auto repair business for the past eight years.
Eddie Davis, President and Exective Director of CAAAB, said small business owners must engage themselves in an “honest reality check” in order to give their enterprises a chance to make solid beginning steps.
“Research suggests that until businesses can see things objectively, honestly and with full transparency, it is difficult to have intentional and deliverate growth,” Davis said.
Through the Catch the CAAAB program, IMPACT and the other consultants will work closely with the specifically targeted businesses by delivering:
- One on One Consulting (Mentoring)
- Strategic Planning
- Business Development
- Human Development/Training
- Financial Planning
- Risk Management
- Marketing/Sales.
Among CAAAB’s role in program will be to recruit the 20 businesses and raise capital and secure stakeholder support of the operation the program.
CAAAB, founded in 2006, is a non-profit civic organization established to support the growth and development of businesses owned by African Americans. The center’s goal is also to use entrepreneurship as a tool for fostering economic independence among at risk and impoverished populations.
Davis said CAAAB will continue serving the needs of small and disadvantaged businesses through it s regular technical assistance program, where the goal is to prepare these businesses to qualify for the Catch the CAAAB program.
During the introduction of the capacity building program, Lora Gulley said three keys small business success is attitude, planning and adapting.
“Do you have the mental stamina and toughness to start and run a business, creating a workable blueprint to know when you’re there and responding to a changing landscape?” she said.
For more information about Catch the CAAAB program, visit www.CAAAB.org or call 314-533-2411, ext. 109.